Scout Jamboree
- YEAR OF EVENT
1953 (Officially July 17-23)
- PARTICIPANTS
51,680 Scouts, Scoutmasters, and staff
In July 1953, where Fashion Island now sits, the National Scout Jamboree hosted 50,000 Scouts and leaders. Raising a tent city that stretched to the sea, the event drew Hollywood favorites like Bob Hope and Debbie Reynolds and welcomed an overnight visit from then Vice President Richard Nixon. The spectacle was so large that the new access route was christened “Jamboree Road,” a name that still guides shoppers to Fashion Island today.
Did You Know?
In 1953, Fashion Island was the grounds for the first and only National Scout Jamboree held on the West Coast.
This event is the reason why Jamboree Road is named as it is.
Largest Scouting event in U.S. history at the time, with 50,000+ attendees.
125 Scouts from 16 countries, including a Scoutmaster and 4 Scouts who traveled by taxi from Canada.
Richard Nixon, vice president at the time, visited and spent the night with Scouts. Hollywood stars like Danny Kaye, Debbie Reynolds, and Bob Hope also attended.
Unique Activities
Scouts traded unusual items, such as snakes, dirt, water from rivers, avocados, and even cow horns.
Montie Montana, a rodeo trick rider, actor, stuntman and cowboy, performed at the rodeo grounds on-site.
A one-mile stretch of Huntington Beach was used for swimming, complete with "buddy checks."
To close out the jamboree, "Auld Lang Syne" was sung in the amphitheater with 90,000 attendees.
At the event's end on July 23, 1953, the Scouts left at a rapid pace to return home and continue their Scouting adventures.
